The Roots of Caribbean Identity: Language, Race, and Ecology

This book is original in its conception, perspective and treatment of the languages and identities of the West Indies as a whole. The author makes extensive use of a huge range of multiple and multilingual historical sources to let the voices of the past speak for themselves, and unearths forgotten connections that reveal the interrelatedness of territories and their 'historical saga'. The book is illustrated and has as its central elements race, place and language which are seen as basic starting points for the constitution of identity. Peter Roberts presents a lucid account of a movement from a written, wholly European construction of Caribbean identity towards a more Caribbean one. He relates how the identity of the Caribbean region and the identities of the separate islands within the region were shaped and set out within a chronological sequence starting from the time of the European encounters with the Amerindians and finishing at the end of the nineteenth century, when the consciousness of national identities was evident among the Caribbean peoples.